Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I built it!!!!and rode it!!!!

Well the time came, my Trek fuel has cracked, and in the weekend I brazed on the guides and stops.Richie came round also and I ran the reamer down the St till the post fitted. So I was standing in the work shop as it ticked over in my head, then in a 2hr strip and build frenzy it was pretty much ready to ride!


The plan for the E type front derailleur didn't work, there was more sticking out the back of the derailleur (the parallelogram parts) than I worked out, so there wasn't enough room for it.
Damn! On to the single ring programme!Which made life pretty easy on the build up as I just bolted up my spare Balfa pulley wheel and put a Black spire tensioner under the BB cup.


Pressed my FSA pig pro that I bought especially for the job, when I thought that I brazed in the HT to high!Damn! So I needed something that had a reasonable amount of stack at the bottom. It also will support the HT being a Dh headset.


It all went together really well with no major alignment/interference isses.
Then I pushed it out the door, got on and rolled down the street. It passed the curb test and the out of the seat climb test, so all is good.
The next day I bought a 28.6mm QR collar for the post, and the next morning I rode it to and from work.
The ride is really good being a high pivot it rides real nice through the rocks here, and maintains alot of momentum through the rough.It climbed really well up Rapaki which is cool.
Only thing is it had the 190mm shock from my fuel in there and I built around the 200mm/2.25" shock so it was very low and slack! I mashed quite a few rocks with my cranks! But it railled round the turns. The rear suspension is very efficient it was "pushing" the bike forward as the fork was pushing backwards strange feeling?! I think theres a little to much air in the fork and I need to valve the shock properly.
So I'm stoked to ride it, I'll give it a few weeks make sure its all good (no more naked flames required!) and then get some color on it.Will keep you posted.Rossco.


1 comment:

Zane said...

Sweet! I am liking your high rear-ward pivot!! Nice skills putting a whole bike together... you and Richie will both be styling up the hill on home built rigs!

I have a 200mm 2" stroke fox float AVA sitting in the drawer at home if you needed one to test it out at 200mm with?? If you want to try it out drop me a line on insanezane at fastmail dot fm (or Richie will have my number). Cheers

Zane

 

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